SD, MBB, BBM and corruption

VIRTUAL REALITY

- TONY LOPEZ

I did not pluck these letters from thin air. The letters, or acronyms, carry import and power that contribute to a better understanding of the most important issue ever to engulf the Philippines and which is now shaking its very foundation as a democracy—corruption.

SD stands for Sara Duterte and Sarah Discaya. Sara Duterte is the first ever vice president impeached by the House of Representatives for allegedly stealing P612 million of confidential and intelligence funds in the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education from July 1, 2022 to June 19, 2024. The VP became the official symbol of large-scale corruption in government until the Supreme Court nullified her impeachment.

Sarah Discaya, a daughter of a chambermaid and a driver in London, is today the poster girl of greed and corruption of contractors, a partner of equally corrupt and greedy senators and congressmen and engineers at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). She and her husband, Curlee Discaya, once a church kid janitor and a son of riverside squatters, own nine companies that bagged P31 billion worth of flood control contracts from the government. They are multi-billionaires, having stolen at least P5 billion of taxpayers' money.

MBB stands for the first letters of the surnames of Macy Monique Maglanque, Sunshine Bernardo and Fatima Gay Bonoan y dela Cruz, "known surnames of today's flood control saga," said Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson in his privilege speech on Sept. 9, 2025.

Maglanque is the family behind Globalcrete Builders, one of Bulacan's—and the Philippines'—largest contractors.